The invention relates to a compartment for carrying out processes which require an environment with a relatively high degree of cleanliness, such as processes for assembling semiconductor devices and integrated circuit packages.
Traditionally, large clean rooms with cleanliness levels of below 10,000 or 100,000 particles 0.5 microns or larger per cubic meter of air (hereinafter referred to as class 10,000 and 100,000 respectively) is required to provide the clean air needed for the assembly, packaging and testing of integrated circuit packages. Electrical risers are commonly installed in the clean room to supply the necessary electrical and gas supplies to the semiconductor producing equipment.
Such clean rooms are very expensive to set up and to maintain. Due to increased automation of manufacturing and assembly processes, it would be advantageous to reduce the size of the environment wherein the clean air is maintained so as to minimize the set-up and maintenance costs required for a traditional clean room.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,920 relating to xe2x80x9cAn Apparatus for Producing Semiconductor Devicexe2x80x9d, an apparatus is described to provide a more dust-free environment for the production of semiconductor devices. The apparatus comprises a dust-proof cover which shields the semiconductor chips and the lead frame from ambient air and a dust collecting means for sticking air out of the dust-proof cover to suck dust from the interior of the dust-proof cover. Whilst it serves to remove dust generated by the discharge of dust from the molding process, it does not solve ale problem of performing the whole manufacturing process, which may include a whole production line involved in the semiconductor assembly process, in an environment that is cleaner than its surroundings.
It is an object of the invention to seek the mitigate the disadvantages of the prior art.
Accordingly, the invention provides a compartment having a space segregated from air outside the compartment and is capable of storing a production apparatus, comprising panels defining the space, an air transmission passage channeling air into the space, air filtering means disposed between the air transmission passage and the space to cleanse air entering from the air transmission passage, and an air outlet to allow air to be expelled from the space, whereby the compartment is adapted continuously to maintain air within the compartment cleaner than the air outside the compartment.
Using the invention, it is possible to provide a compartment wherein one or more production apparatuses in which a manufacturing process is carried out may be segregated from the surrounding environment. Means may provided to maintain the space within the or each compartment at a level of cleanliness that is higher than the surrounding environment so as to obviate the need for a traditional large clean room to carry out the manufacturing processes.
It will be convenient to hereinafter describe the invention in greater detail by reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of the invention. The particularity of the drawings and the related description is not to be understood as superseding the generality of the broad. Identification of the invention as defined by the claims.